EPA May Be Held Accountable for Potential Wrongdoing at the Gold Mine King Spill
Criminal investigations into the Environmental Protection Agency’s disastrous handling of its Gold King Mine spill are under way. This is a laudable step toward accountability for the agency, which for one year has avoided accountability for conduct that would in all likelihood have resulted in criminal prosecution had the acts been performed by private parties.
No one at the EPA has been held accountable, despite the fact that private parties were convicted of “criminal negligence” when a backhoe accident spilled a comparably insignificant “1,000 to 1,500 gallons of oil” into nearby waters, and when a company discharged only natural elements such as “rock, sand, soil [or] stone” into nearby streams.
Heritage Foundation scholars have argued that the government “should prosecute the subordinate and supervisory EPA officials in this case or stop bringing similar charges against private parties for...